Reuters Science News Summary

August 18, 2012|Reuters

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

NASA unveils Mars rover Curiosity's travel plans

CAPE CANAVERAL (Reuters) - NASA on Friday unveiled plansfor its Mars rover Curiosity's first road trip, part of atwo-year quest to determine if the planet most like Earth couldever have hosted microbial life, scientists said. The one-tonnuclear-powered robotic science lab landed in a large craternear Mars' equator on August 6 to search for organic materialsand other chemistry considered key to life.

Floating robot helps track great white sharks

OSLO (Reuters) - A floating robot has been deployed totrack great white sharks in the Pacific as part of efforts tounderstand the giant predators. The ``wave glider,'' which fromabove looks like a yellow surfboard, picks up signals fromtagged fish up to 1,000 feet away in the ocean and then sendstheir positions to researchers via a satellite transmitter.

Biology gives American psychopaths a legal break

LONDON (Reuters) - Criminal psychopaths in the UnitedStates whose lawyers provide biological evidence for theirbrain condition are more likely to be sentenced to shorter jailterms than those who are simply said to be psychopaths,according to new research. A study published in the journalScience found that if judges were told a criminal was apsychopath, they considered it an aggravating factor. But ifthey also heard biological explanations for the disorder, theygave shorter sentences.